Articles Archive for November 2017

You might think that police automatically are notified when a convicted felon or domestic abuser—or someone who is not legally permitted to purchase a gun—tries to do so but is stopped.

You’d be wrong. Sometimes law enforcement hears about it, sometimes not. But that would change if a Chicago Democrat and a Pennsylvania Republican get their way.

Under legislation being sponsored by local U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley and colleague Patrick Meehan, the federal government would set up a system in which authorities would be told when someone trying to purchase a firearm flunks their background check, which outlaws purchases by felons, domestic abusers and the mentally ill.

Since 1998, at least 72 percent of those flagged by the National Instant Criminal Background Check fell into those categories, but such “lie and try” offenses rarely are prosecuted, the two said. Changing the law would make such offenses more prominent, and at least warn authorities to keep an eye on someone because of potential criminal activity.

“We can create an additional layer of protection to ensure weapons stay out of the hands of the wrong people,” said Quigley in a statement, describing the bill as “a common-sense step to mitigate the gun violence epidemic.”

A similar bill sponsored by the two failed to gain even a hearing in the last Congress, which shelved all gun control bills. But this time, the two seem more optimistic. They’ve lined up eight bipartisan sponsors, received an endorsement from the Fraternal Order of Police and are trying to add the bill as an amendment to other legislation that seems to be moving faster.

For what it’s worth, according to Quigley’s office, the National Rifle Association appears open to the bill, with its spokesman saying the group “has always supported prosecuting dangerous people who illegally attempt to purchase a firearm.”

A source close to Rep Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) tells NBC News: Gutierrez is entertaining the idea of a presidential run but he is really trying to figure out what will make the biggest impact in 2020 to mobilize Latino & progressive voters.— Ale…

* Politico…
There’s nothing normal about the way Illinois Congressman Luis Gutiérrez’s retirement announcement went down.
The abruptness of his decision, the suspicious timing, the immediate coronation of a successor — all of it set off a flurry of speculation Tuesday that Gutiérrez had made some kind of grand inside play, perhaps brokered with Mayor Rahm Emanuel.
* […]

Let’s face it–thousands of progressives were ready to impeach Donald Trump even before he was sworn in. Truth to tell, deep down I sympathized with them–silly as the idea was.
All through his first year in office you heard the word “impeach” more and more. It reached a kind of crescendo in recent weeks with a heavy TV blitz by a progressive philanthropist and the introduction of articles of impeachment by six congressmen.

It is a lot less silly, but the idea is premature, unrealistic, unwise and potentially damaging to the ultimate cause …

The (multiple shark jumping) Chicago Reader and Ben Joravsky, have started a big story at Chicago’s Amazon Bid, claiming that
Say Amazon hires someone at $100,000 to program computers at HQ2. Normally that employee would pay $4,950 to the state for things like road repaving, policing, education, and so forth. With the current tax rate of 4.95 percent, the hipster essentially pays up to $4,950 to his boss at Amazon.
It was picked up nationally and internationally, where The Independent (UK) breathlessly tell us
Amazon HQ2: Chicago offers tech giant $1.32bn of its worker’s income …